Today’s Reflections
There’s not much to say about Game 2 or the Wild Card Series overall.
Nico Hoerner was the only hitter to consistently rise to the challenge of the Padre pitching. Hoerner went 2-for-4 in each game with a double and RBI in Wednesday’s game. Seiya Suzuki was 2-for-7 with a run scored over the two games.
There wasn’t anything worth talking about regarding the pitching staff.
Not-very-deep-or-analyzed thoughts about the state of the team going into 2027:
There will probably be a lockout.
The coaching staff: …… Not ready to cut Counsell, but wouldn’t be upset if they did. There will be some movement in the staff, however.
I would love to re-sign Seiya, but now is his time to go get his bag and the Cubs won’t match, so good luck. I feel the Cubs and Ian Happ will part ways.
This would be a great reduction in production, but ride into the regular season with some combination of Pedro Ramirez, Matt Shaw and Kevin Alcántara into the OF to start and hope Josiah Hartshorn will be ready in the second half. Very few quality FA OFers, so it is not worth it to overpay for anyone out there.
Pour all that “new” money and spend it in every facet of the pitching staff. Top two SP, a closer and a very good high-leverage RP. “Well, what about the strike and all those high-dollar guys sitting out?” Any time off is less wear on their arms. Plus it would give Justin Steele and Cade Horton more time to get ready. Cheer for a strike? Maybe it would help the Cubs.
Again, just off the top of my head stuff, no numbers or targets — just a basic set up for improvement for the team in the future. Nothing in stone. Probably way off.
I appreciate your reading.
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Wild Card Game No. 2 Stories:
- Meghan Montemurro (Chicago Tribune {$}): Chicago Cubs quickly KO’d from playoffs after bats quiet again in 4-1 loss to San Diego Padres. “Just as the clock hit midnight in Chicago to ring in October, the Cubs’ 2026 season ended with a dud.”
- Jordan Bastian (MLB.com): Cubs mull what could have been after abrupt Wild Card exit. “Looming free agencies of Happ, Suzuki at forefront as Chicago looks ahead after ‘sour taste’ of 2026’s end.”
- Vinnie Duber (Chicago Sun-Times): Cubs don’t get close to meeting championship expectations as season ends in two-game playoff sweep vs. Padres. “The Cubs’ season ended with a thud Wednesday night as they were swept out of the postseason with a 4-1 loss to the Padres.”
Post-Mortem for Wild Card Stories:
- Matt Ostrowski (North Side Baseball): Cubs Get Stern Reminder About What It’s Like To Play Baseball Without Joy. “The Cubs didn’t do the little or big things right in their series against the Padres, looking miserable as they trudged to the finish line of their season.”
- Tyler Edmunds (OnTapSportsNet): The Cubs Didn’t Just Lose — They Quit. “The Cubs didn’t just lose the series on Wednesday night, they quit. The “magical” season ends on a whimper.“
- Jake Misener (Cubbies Crib): Tyler Mahle’s Wild Card brilliance calls Cubs’ Kevin Gausman decision into question. “While a less-than-100% Gausman struggled, Tyler Mahle was brilliant for the Braves.”
- Vinnie Duber (Chicago Sun-Times): Stinging from playoff exit, Cubs must make sure next year is different: ‘It’s time to look in the mirror’. “The Cubs’ disappointing playoff failure generates plenty of questions. But only one matters: How do they make sure this doesn’t happen again?”
- Matt Sullivan (Sporting News): Cubs make MLB postseason history with all-time terrible slugging percentage. “This feat of history is one to forget for the Cubs amid a horrible postseason run.”
- Vinnie Duber (Chicago Sun-Times): Cubs’ swift elimination leaves them facing reality of season gone wrong: ‘I look at it as a failure’. “The Cubs reacted to an earlier-than-expected playoff loss, the end of a brief stay that had the Padres looking like championship contenders and the Cubs nowhere close to sniffing their World Series aspirations.”
- Alex Pratt (Yardbarker): Chicago Cubs: A weird and wild season comes to an end. “The team that struggled down the stretch, lost the top Wild Card spot, and was running into a buzzsaw had an uphill battle.”
- Steve Greenberg (Chicago Sun-Times): Cubs’ total playoff no-show let — and left — everybody down.. ““I’m just feeling pretty disappointed in myself,” Pete Crow-Armstrong said after going hitless in two wild-card games against the Padres. “But that’s for me to work on.”“
- Matt Snyder (CBSSports): Pete Crow-Armstrong takes accountability after Cubs’ quick postseason exit: ‘Pretty disappointed in myself’. “The likely NL MVP was 0 for 7 with a walk and four strikeouts in the Wild Card Series vs. the Padres.”
- Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation): Alex Bregman Did Something This Week That He’s Never Done Before in the Postseason. “For the 10th time in his 10+ year MLB career, Alex Bregman made the postseason.”
- Sean Sears (Chicago Cubs On SI): Takeaways After Cubs Fall Apart in Wild Card Series, Fail to Reach Full Potential. “The Cubs’ bats never woke up as the red-hot Padres completed the series sweep.”
Pre-MVP Celebration:
- Matthew Trueblood (North Side Baseball): Don’t Stop Him Now: The Breathtaking Brilliance of Pete Crow-Armstrong, One More Time. “Picking a favorite highlight from the season Pete Crow-Armstrong just had is functionally impossible. Any time you alight on one, another thrusts itself at you. Let’s sit with a few of the best, as a balm for the disappointment of a summer that gave way to fall too soon.”
Post-Post Series/Off-season Stories:
- J.P Hoornstra (The Big Lead): Longtime Cubs infielder who finished career in Cleveland dies at 76. “A veteran infielder who played nine MLB seasons and was known more for his glove than his bat with the Cubs and Indians died at 76”
- Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic {$}): Cubs’ offseason: 3 big questions for a second-place team still chasing the Brewers. “Here are three questions to ponder as Cubs players and personnel scatter for the offseason, not knowing exactly when they will regroup and return to business as usual.”
- Zoe Grossman (Chicago Cubs On SI): The Toughest Contract Decision Facing the Cubs This Winter. “On the heels of a crushing playoff exit, the Cubs now must turn to the offseason.
- Jordan Campbell (Cubbies Crib): Cubs’ Wild Card collapse opens door for Jed Hoyer to revisit painfully familiar narrative.“We’re here again.”
- Doug Schwamb (Chicago Cubs On Si): The Biggest Fix the Cubs Need to Make After An Ugly 2026 Ending. “The Chicago Cubs season is over and there’s plenty of blame to go around. However, the Cubs biggest mistake cost them a shot at a deep playoff run.”
- Matt Sullivan (Sporting News): Why Cubs’ biggest priority in offseason is not their beloved free agent outfielders. “The top priority for the Cubs after elimination has nothing to do with their outfield.”
- Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation): Was That Ian Happ’s Last Game as a Chicago Cub? Were These Words His Farewell?. “I’m not sure there’s been a more controversial GOOD player in my time covering the Cubs than Ian Happ.”.
- Meghan Montemurro (Chicago {$}): ‘He’s the Chicago Cubs’: Ian Happ — team’s longest-tenured player — faces uncertain future after playoff exit. “Key members from the past two playoff teams are impending free agents and unlikely to return, a group that includes left fielder Ian Happ, who has spent the last 10 big-league seasons representing the organization.”
- Madison Williams (Newsweek): Ian Happ Reflects on His Time as a Cub Ahead of Free Agency. “Longtime Cubs outfielder Ian Happ could’ve played his last game with the team as the Padres swept them in the wild-card.
- J.J. Cooper & Mark Chiarelli (Baseball America (free): What’s Next For Cubs In 2027? Top Prospects, Biggest Needs. “As soon as an MLB team bows out of the postseason, fans immediately want answers.”
- Matt Sullivan (Sporting News): Tigers tabbed as No. 1 landing spot for Cubs 4.51 ERA starter in free agency. “Tigers linked to Kevin Gausman as affordable free agent target,”
- Paul Sullivan (Chicago Tribune {$}): Column: With both teams on Peacock, finding a Chicago playoff game on TV never has been so maddening. “It’s one thing to miss a regular-season game because it was on an app you don’t have.”
Food For Thought:
Leroy Carr (March 27, 1904 or 1905 – April 29, 1935) was an American blues singer, songwriter and pianist who developed a laid-back, crooning technique and whose popularity and style influenced such artists as Nat King Cole and Ray Charles. Music historian Elijah Wald has called him “the most influential male blues singer and songwriter of the first half of the 20th century”.
After his parents separated, Carr moved from Nashville to Indianapolis, Indiana with his mother. Carr was a self-taught piano player. After dropping out of high school, Carr travelled with a circus, and in the early 1920s served in the U.S. Army. Carr returned to Indianapolis and worked in a meat-packing plant. He was married and had one daughter. Carr was convicted of bootlegging and served a year at the Indiana State Penitentiary. His light bluesy piano combined with Scrapper Blackwell’s melodic jazz guitar attracted a sophisticated black audience. The two recorded with Vocalion Records beginning in the 1920s.
Francis Hillman “Scrapper” Blackwell was an American blues guitarist and singer. Best known as half of the guitar-piano duo he formed with Leroy Carr in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was an acoustic, single-note picker in the Chicago blues and Piedmont blues styles, with some critics noting that he veered towards jazz.
Blackwell was born in Syracuse, South Carolina, on February 21, 1903 as one of sixteen children. He claimed to be part Cherokee. When he was quite young, his family moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he spent most of his life. He was nicknamed “Scrapper” by his grandmother because of his fiery nature. Although largely self-taught as a guitarist, Blackwell was later influenced by the recordings of Willie Harris and Blind Lemon Jefferson, and probably by the East Coast Piedmont style of his birthplace. He didn’t consider himself a professional musician until pianist Leroy Carr persuaded Blackwell to record with him
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